Perhaps you already saw this in yesterday’s Newsday, but for reasons only known to himself, Jon Heyman chose the 3rd or 4th day of training camp to pillory Mike Piazza.
If anyone’s missing Mike Piazza in Mets camp, no one’s saying.
Piazza’s position was taken by Paul Lo Duca, his locker was taken by strength coach Rick Slate, and according to everything gleaned from Mets people, he will be easily replaced in the clubhouse. In fact, if not for the stray fan with the “Piazza 31” jersey, you wouldn’t know he was ever here.
Piazza, a holdover from the previous regime, most often was publicly portrayed as low-key (here, too), but some staff members now say they viewed him as aloof or even standoffish.
One Mets person recalled that when Piazza went looking for pitcher Julian Tavarez after a late-year beaning in St. Louis, “hardly anyone wanted to back him up.” That person said Piazza appeared to prefer newspapers and a computer to his 2005 teammates.
The newspapers part sounds a little like Graham Le Saux’s notorious love of The Guardian. But seriously, with teammates like Tom Glavine, who wouldn’t prefer newspapers and a computer?